Super Mario Party Jamboree Preview: Gameplay innovations enhance the Mario Party formula

Three years ago Mario Party Superstars was released and since then not a single month has gone by without me and some good friends playing at least one round in search of coins, and humiliating one another in fun minigames. For me, a lover of board games, Nintendo, and video games, the Mario Party series is the perfect compromise, but the game was honestly a little short on content and I've been eagerly awaiting more.

Now Super Mario Party Jamboree is just around the corner and I've had the opportunity to play it for a few days and can now share some first impressions. This time around, the game is bigger than ever before, with some 20 playable characters (including relatively obscure options like Spike, Ninji, and Monty Mole) and seven boards, as well as several game modes, including a light battle royale-flavoured online mode (which I haven't had a chance to try yet).

One new feature is that this time you can choose whether you want to play with Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller, though the latter means that motion-sensitive minigames are removed. What percentage is motion-sensitive I don't know exactly, but based on my time with Super Mario Party Jamboree I'd guess around 20%. Anyway, after a brief presentation of the game, my fellow players and I stand in the square that serves as the game's menu this time. Here I can buy things for earned money (with zero microtransactions), check minigame records, and take a hot air balloon ride to the areas representing the various game modes.

Basically, it's a rather slow-paced menu, which however adds a lot of charm and is very typical for Nintendo. In my first round I choose to play the new board Rainbow Galleria, a large shopping centre with a difficulty level of four out of five. The difficulty levels really only indicate how complicated the courses are, mainly for younger players, and there are no other oddities.

This time around, you can choose a Pro mode in addition to regular Mario Party, which means random events and bonus items take on significantly less importance. There also isn't an infinite number of items to buy and everyone starts with a selected item to make things more fair. The number of rounds is 10 by default, which is lower than previous instalments in the series (it used to be 20 rounds), and this should, according to Nintendo, take around 90 minutes - something I can confirm is pretty accurate.

Rainbow Galleria offers several different paths on several different floors and has a huge range of special rules. From collecting stamps that give extra bonus points when you complete a lap, to low-budget shops and more luxurious ones, as well as big sales every five rounds. Of course, there's also a spooky abandoned shop when you find a ghost, as well as a lift that, for a fee, will quickly take you to your desired floor. Spontaneously, the board feels very good and even in 10 rounds, everyone I played with had time to go round at least once and sometimes even twice.

As it should be, each round is concluded with a minigame, which consists of mostly new and a number of refreshed favourites. There are 110 in total, and so far we've only found one that doesn't measure up, where you have to escape a rolling stone in an Indiana Jones-style (you should be able to opt out of the ones you don't like) with everyone in the gang managing to survive every time. Otherwise, there are plenty of great minigames, some of which are surprisingly deep and really challenge you and test the limits of your friendships. I've jumped on falling sandwiches, boxed with a giant robot, dropped spiky traps on my opponents, pushed my way through a sea of balls, ran along platform levels, and much more.

The other boards I got to try were Mega Wiggler's Tree Party, where a huge and increasingly angry Wiggler lies in a hole and walks around sometimes, which completely changes the conditions for how to get around. A very standard Mario Party board that is the perfect entry point into the series. We have Goomba Lagoon with a large volcano and tidal waves, where parts of the board closest to the dangerous mountain are littered with traps or extra rewards, and where tidal movement can mean you can easily get stranded on an island. Spontaneously, getting stuck on such an island is a real bummer, as it can mean spending two or three rounds just walking around a meaningless tiny area, but otherwise, this is a good board.

The board that stands out the most, however, is Roll 'em Raceway, where all the players sit in F1 cars and drive around a track where the stars are sold in the same place all the time. Here, it's therefore important to drive fast so that you have time to buy as many stars as possible, and where a 4x mushroom allows you to roll four dice at once - with the caveat that you then drive so fast that you do not have time to stop for anything, not even to buy a star. Dare you use it with 20 steps left to the star...? On Roll 'em Raceway in particular, I recommend increasing the number of rounds to at least 15, as it is faster to play and really benefits from the fact that you have time to drive around at least a few laps.

What impressed the most about Super Mario Party Jamboree, however, are the sidekicks that have been introduced as part of the game. They appear a few rounds into each round and consist of the playable characters that remain. All of them provide different advantages (for you) or disadvantages (for the opponents). Those who reach the helper first gain an advantage in a subsequent minigame to 'win' the helper. I won't spoil the fun for you, but believe me when I say that these minigames (which are not even very mini) are among the best and most fun parts of the game.

Another thing I'd like to highlight is how much more information is visible on the screen now, which is all good, of course, but can feel a bit cluttered. There are more icons, markings with what order things happen in and text. Unfortunately, these are quite small, which is not a problem on a large TV, but for those with poorer eyesight or a smaller TV, I'm not convinced that everything will be particularly clear.

All in all, it bodes very well for the finished game that will be released on October 17. Super Mario Party Jamboree is in many ways classic Mario Party, but it's more of everything and it also has several exciting gameplay innovations as well as a real online mode. We'll be back closer to the launch with our final and complete review.